For centuries Buddhist monks have used meditation to attain enlightenment and more recently, physicians have successfully employed meditation to treat pain, depression and anxiety.

Cárdenas, who lived in Asia for 8 1/2 years, explores different meditation forms (walking, sitting, standing, qigong) and how mindfulness can help us confront the roots of our pain and address it as opposed to treating the mere symptoms. Mindfulness is an antidote for uncertainty. Zen teaches us to find the lightness of being “bearable,” and to rejoice in this lightness.